There are some special human specimens whose organizational skills surpass the rest of us: they never lose a sock in the laundry, they never forget a single item on their grocery list, and they never lose an earring. The rest of us mere mortals are doomed. While socks are replaceable and return trips to the grocery store are easy enough, losing an earring is a bit of a predicament. Earrings can be precious, expensive, and sentimental. Jewelry is so personal. So what can be done with a single earring?
If your earring was something sentimental, a special gift or an heirloom, you could consider a visit to a custom jeweler to have it duplicated. At Secrète Fine Jewelry, our master craftsman has worked miracles duplicating earrings, sculpting elaborate antique filigree dangles and matching unusual colors and cuts of stones. We love hearing a customer wonder aloud, “Which one was the original?” when eyeing our perfect replacement to the pair.
Recreating a missing diamond stud is an easy task for a trained custom jeweler.
Sometimes, however, recreating the pair isn’t the best option for you, especially when it opens up the possibility of creating something completely new. There are so many options for transforming a single earring into a usable, new piece of jewelry!
Some earrings are easy to reimagine as pendants or rings.
Some earrings are already set in a style that you love that’s also easy to be reimagined as something else. A simple halo style setting, for example, is classic and universal, so a single halo earring is easily transformed into a halo pendant or ring. At Secrete, it’s not just a matter of removing a post and adding a new mounting, though. We take extra steps to make sure that the integrity of each piece is secure and well-crafted and that every additional stone added is a perfect match in color and clarity to the original stones, so that your finished piece looks as if it were always set that way. Whether you choose to transform your lone earring into a pendant with an accented bail or a stylish ring with a pave shank, it should look unified and complete, never like a crafty recycle.
Even a small stone can become a statement pendant with imagination.
You can also think outside the box with remounting your earring in terms of size and scale. A simple stud earring may seem a little small as a pendant. A new mounting can transform the mood and size of your jewelry. Here, a simple green tourmaline stud earring gets a more eye-catching size and a modern feel with a negative-space geometric surround accented with diamonds.
Small stones can be creatively re-purposed in delicate rings.
Don’t be discouraged if your earring has lots of small stones, a mix of shapes and sizes, or if it’s simply not a style you like very well. Sometimes there’s that single earring hanging out in the bottom of the jewelry box that doesn’t look like it has much potential. A skilled custom designer can start from scratch with the stones and metals you have to create a modern and attractive ring, necklace, or bracelet. You can change the metal color, supplement your materials with a matching stone or two if the design calls for it, and end up with a lovely piece you’ll wear every day. Some of our favorite redesigns have been transforming cluster earrings and old-fashioned hoops into fun stackable bands.
This beautiful and unique engagement ring was made by Secrete using stones from broken earrings and brooches.
You can also combine multiple earring singles and other old or broken jewelry to create something unique. One Secrète bride creatively used stones from an old opal earring, a broken diamond hoop, and her grandmother’s brooch (all jewelry from her family) to come up with a sentimental and unique engagement ring. We re-cut the oval shaped opal into a round cabochon and set her family diamonds into the milgrain hexagon halo and tapered accented band, expertly incorporating their slightly different sizes into the design. The end effect was much more beautiful and modern than imaginable, and it carried a heritage of three generations of love.
You can turn your spring cleaning into a new piece of jewelry, too. Simply grab those single earrings that have been gathering dust in your jewelry box, and contact us today. You can stop by one of our locations in Bethesda, Maryland, or Washington, DC, to meet with a designer to find ways to breathe new life into your forgotten treasures.
